Halo: Falling Lost
by Uchiha Kengura
Summary: With Mystery at its back, Pieces of metal turn up in the Mountains and foothills of Japan's Northern Peninsula which are investigated and turn out to be of modern origin. Chapter 3 is up, and its my longest chapter yet in any novelization or story.
1. Mountain of Discovery

_Hero. Demon._

 _That's what they called us. Doesn't really matter what people thought though, as long as we got the jobs done. Spartans, humanities saviors. Spartans never die, or at least that's what they tell the public._

 _Maybe we really don't. Just for a second, maybe even we begin to believe the same that Spartans Never Die. They simply go missing._

 _I certainly did._

* * *

 **AUGUST 14, 2547 – NORTH JAPAN Mount Takahata. 13:31 Local Time.**

"ONI Archeological survey dig site #00627-211941. Today, we begin exploring a cavern that was shown to us by a local group of Japanese Citizens. The caverns, recently discovered after a large earthquake in the area are part of a larger compound deeper in the side of the Mountain it appears. On surface digs, we have discovered metallic alloys and fragments of metal. These appear to be very old, possibly a fallen satellite that broke up on re-entry to the atmosphere." The dictation starts out, slender female fingers type on the pad in front of her as she continues detailing.

Stopping her dictation, she reaches over, picking up a small 22mm length of metal, covered in rust and dirt as she scrubs away at it slowly with her brush on the table. The metal… was just more metallic underneath. Letting loose a sigh, she turned back to the monitor, placing the metal back in its opened container on a white cloth.

"The metal piece itself must be part of a larger vessel. It's not tool grade metal, and has obviously been exposed to extreme heat as it warped and coiled like someone stuck it in a fire and dropped it in water too quickly. Aside from heavy oxidation and burn marks, there's a single marking on the metal near the base. It looks like a number of some kind, but it could be anything." She pauses again, taking the metal and scraping it with a small plastic knife, knocking off small pieces of dust and debris into the tray. Each new surface yielded very little as far as what it went to.

"Honestly, I'm not sure this is connected." Her voice trailed off for a moment, as she cleared her throat. "The Locals, this community, has a history going back centuries and a story that comes with it. It spoke of a Demon in Blue Armor that descended from the heavens and walked as though he were a devil. He had several companions, all men that came with him. The Demon and his servants Lived on the mountain, and grew very strong, even having local feudal Japanese lords live on the land; cultivate it."

Her voice cracked again, she stopped the recording again, taking her glasses off and setting them to the side. _Why didn't I just get my eyes fixed like Capt. Persna requested, she even said ONI would pay for the operations. Six months is a long time but… my glasses are part of me… Right?_

"Ok, gotta focus…" she said, snapping off her own train of thought and stretching out. She stood up and walked to the end of the table, the u shaped furniture wrapping around her chair with her computer and dictation ongoing in the center of the U. To the left, she opened up a second box she had on the desk, containing numerous artifacts and other materials from Feudal Japan. Hand tools, part of a broken Katana, and pieces of a manuscript dating from the mid-1750s. She took the manuscript, its brittle pages being reinforced by new laminate so they could be handled with ease she read it over again.

"Basically, the manuscript we found last month refers to the demon again, but this time over 200 years after he first appeared in the area." She turned the page over and placed her fingers on the paper. "Could the covenant have visited earth centuries before we made formal contact with them?" she pondered, focusing on the word 悪魔, DEMON, written in Japanese Kanji with extreme emphasis.

"If not the covenant, then what exactly are we looking for, or is this just another urban legend? ONI intelligence doesn't seem to believe so. They are very interested in finding whatever is it out here, ever since IT was discovered here, they have been all abuzz trying to find what was so important out on this mountainside and how it was related to the legends."

She reached up and grabbed a 3rd container, pulling it down and gently opening it. Unwrapping the cloth and unsealing the small wrapped bag that was contained in the box. She held up a small, crystalline structure, nearly perfect in formation as a hexagon, but cracked several times like it had been hit repeatedly.

The level of tooling, the level of polish and precision was uncanny. The gem was beautiful, but ONI is convinced it is not naturally occurring. "I have no idea why this gem is so valuable. It honestly looks like a near flawless piece of quartz. As soon as it was discovered, we were given directive to excavate this entire site, and everything within 15 Kilo-Meters. All of this, over a single crystal?"

She held it up the light, the bright fluorescent glow hitting the crystal making perfect prismatic rainbows on the floor, refractions from the cracks make the rainbow dance like a kaleidoscope as it was turned and she smiled. "It looks like a toy from when I was a kid almost," as she placed the gem back in its bag. 17mmX17mmX17mmX1mm. a nearly perfect hexagon on all sides and almost perfectly shaped. It made little sense as she placed the container back on the shelf and stirred. ONI was known for their secrets. They are always keeping public notice down but this was certainly of a different breed. Something new. They had always shied away from large public projects but why this one? What made it so special?

She had so many questions as the day grew longer. Glancing down and picking up her name badge, she rubbed some dust off of her tag that had stuck from earlier when she was in the field in the morning observing the sunrise from the entry of her camp's barracks.

"Lieutenant Marsha Tokashi, UNSC Archivist and Historian." She read her badge aloud to herself, running her fingers over the edges and cleaning her badge till it shined again. "My, don't you get yourself dirty a lot!" as she put it back on her coat. Walking over to the computer, she started to log back into her computer again. Clicking on the keyboard, the screen popped up and quickly displayed a message from one of her team at the dig site.

 **COME QUICK! IMPORTANT FIND, BRING THE FIRST METAL PIECE!**

\- SPECIALIST ALLEN BAKER

Quickly picking up the box and staring into it her eyes lit up, for the first time in it seemed like weeks. Tucking it inside her arm, and picking up the keys to a warthog she had been granted use of it was time to head out.

Driving down the road a large Mountain came into view. Approximately 2,600m tall, the structure was far from the tallest in Japan, but still housed a number of inhabitants. The area that was being looked at however was an uninhabited forested area, or at least, it was now. According to legend there was a large structure on the mountain that was now buried and lost to time. In the years before electricity, apparently the Blue Demon had found ways to move earth, and had buried the entire structure. There were no surviving pictures, no paintings or other descriptions, which could mean it was anything, even a castle or a town.

She often drove this mountain pass and thought about just that possibility. For all they knew, it could be a ship, an ancient ship from the Covenant, or other race. It could simply be a home or crude construct… without finding evidence however, she sighed. Maybe they would never know. But Specialist Baker never got excited like this and was not prone to messages of such Brevity. Whatever he had found, apparently it was important.

Speeding off up the mountain, she circled their dig site, one of several in the area that was focused on finding artifacts and other information. The site was roughly 2 Km2 and had a personally detachment of 27. They had been digging and investigating for nearly 5 weeks now, and were on the verge of moving to another site when the first metal piece was discovered. Though they still had their minds wrapped in what-ifs, it was enough to convince the Captain for 2 more weeks investigation to find other artifacts in the same region.

When pulling up, her adjutant was waiting, holding a chart and several documents. Quickly thumb printing the pad and nodding her off she stepped out of the warthog, resting her arms beside her as she looked out over the dig site.

The Main analysis was being done in the largest building, a converted Military drop compound converted over to a portable Science and Research Facility for use on Planetary surfaces and redeployable in Hostile or deadly environments. The main compound was adjacent with 2 other smaller buildings, a storage unity for their equipment, digging rigs, and enough room for 4 warthogs and 3 mongoose. The other building, was an onsite bath and cafeteria. Most of the crew stayed onsite in smaller tents, only she and her adjutant had offsite accommodations.

Heading toward the main dig tent, she parted the dust curtain from its magnetic snaps and pulled it to one side, stepping in out of the light and into a portable cleanroom. Draped with dozens of clear and opaque tarps to prevent dust contamination and adverse airflow from outside drafts, the central point of the latex labyrinth was a large 7m2 room, containing advanced analysis equipment and a direct uplink to ONI headquarters.

Placing her cleanroom gear on, Tokashi strapped the double insulated gloves to her lab jacket and walked through the final barrier, and breathed deep. The smell of the cleanroom was exquisite to her, nothing but the smell of the dirt they were excavating and clay. Looking over to Spec. Baker, the lights around him dimmed a little when the curtains parted.

Baker was a gaunt fellow. Very small, and could not see well at all. Unlike Tokashi when she was recruited could have ocular corrections done, Baker's was so debilitating the risk of permanent damage was too high. He was your stereotypical scientist, thin and frail in a white jacket with large round coke bottle classes. Standing only around 172cm he was short for a marine, and since that also meant he was physically incapable, it made him an excellent choice for non-field duties.

He glanced over to Tokashi, waiting by the door and tapping her foot with eagerness.

"You pulled me away from my coffee and my desk." Remembering she had completely forgotten the coffee she was supposed to bring with her. "What was so important?" following up her statement as she reached for the pot of coffee they kept onto of the mass spectrometer. She always had to smile a little, where else were they going to put it in here? They certainly couldn't put it with the scopes kit.

"Something that may change the course of our entire understanding of history!" Baker enthusiastically replied. Dramatics again, was not another of his qualities so Tokashi quickly noted this with some enthusiasm. Walking over to the table she was leery as to what he had.

Taking the other piece he had requested her bring out of its container she handed it to him. Greedily it was taken from her hands and placed down next to a similar piece of metal that was recovered earlier that morning and had been cleaned up.

"Now, that marking that was on the first piece did not appear to be natural. What is natural about something being engraved into very dense metal?" He asked quizzically. He held the other piece up to the other, linking up the markings to form what appeared at first to be a symbol.

"They match?" Tokashi asked curiously, striding around to the other side of the examination table and bringing a light in closer. Still obscured with dirt mostly, the markings did appear to match up, creating a slightly serpentine pattern under the light.

"It looks familiar, but this is why I waited to confirm with the piece you have. They came from the same craft, the curves and rips are around the same angles and the markings match. We have pieces of the same vessel." He said calmly. A smile creeping to his face and looking up as a discouraging scowl found hers.

"What tells you it's a vessel of some sort?" She countered problematically.

"This does!" he responds. Flipping both pieces over and lining them back up, the reverse has the markings stamped in reading like a serial number. Dusting off the lettering again with a brush and cleaning it up the letters U._._.C F were spelled out followed by a numerical sequence 223_1_144_141_991.

"Some of the lettering is damaged entirely, however if I am right about this, it should read UNSC F," He continues emphatically, spraying a chemical revealer agent, trying to raise or highlight the center 2 letters that had been worn off. The faint remnants of an "N" began appearing on the metal but didn't fully coalesce.

She was shocked, looking at the metal piece she picked it up and examined the numbering on it more. Unable to speak, the piece sat limp on her gloves while it was examined. Small dents in the metal pocked the exterior from erosion but it was amazingly well defined.

"Only one true issue remains… If this is a part from a UNSC vessel that presents a different problem entirely. We haven't had a domestic crash on planet in over 80 years, and this is clearly not simple steel." She started as Baker cut her off.

"That's where the real weird part comes in though. I got the results back from the age dating of the materials and the age dating of the corresponding minerals and dirt it was found in, and it matched those other results we took from the first piece. They date back over 1,000 years!" Exclaiming this last part he pressed his hands down next to the metal slivers. "This metal, should not exist. IT shouldn't even be possible for people from that long ago to have made this, yet it has current day markings on it. Even stranger, the serial number, when entered into the AI's search databanks, all possible iterations are not a match for the missing numbers except 2 things." He stopped, holding back the information for a moment.

"So… you believe that these two pieces of metal are modern and are not 1,000 years old then?" She asked, leaning back and signing. Coming all this way and he's telling her the age of dirt, this was not amusing. "So this is a hoax, if those serial numbers are in service somewhere then this came off of something and this is all some elaborate hoax or someone threw away a piece of metal"

"NO!" He exclaimed quickly and jumping slightly. His reaction caught her off-guard and his eyes grew large, large even for his glasses. "The metal piece, the serial number… they are linked to a Marine issued Shotgun that was manufactured 5 months ago and deployed to Atlas Station!" Further explaining his findings Tokashi was still unimpressed.

"So now you're telling me a marine dropped a shotgun from orbit? This is a shotgun from off the station? Great… this is useless now!" She said, turning to leave. Disappointed and angered. All that frustration, all that spent time and all it was is a damn Marine's Shotgun that someone threw from the orbital platform. Almost 8 weeks of operations here and nothing to show for it.

"No Lieutenant, the shotgun is checked into the station now. They have it in their possession. I called the armory officer onboard and confirmed that the 2 missing serials that the AI got a hit off of are both shotguns, and are both in inventory onsite at the station. They were both used for testing earlier this week before they were installed as part of a weapons shipment to a ship heading out to one of the colonies for a defense supplement." He finished

Tokashi, had a chill go up her spine when he finished talking. What exactly was he suggesting? That the shotgun was faked? Or something much more implicating? She slowly turned around, sipping at her coffee as the Site AI Delphine came online and materialized on the observation table across from the remains.

Delphine was a short, mild tempered and elderly Asian avatar, resembling that of a Native Japanese lady in her mid-50s.

"Specialist Baker is correct. My databases concluded that the 2 weapons that match the data gathered from the wrecked metal when substituting in any other additional characters and numbers through our systems. Furthermore, chemical topical and materials analysis confirms that the composition is 99.92% a match for chemical likeness and composition. The wreckage and the shotguns are identical comparisons when accounting for age and decay based on time and erosion, chemical changes and other exposures over a period of 1,000 years. X-ray analysis of the serial numbers also show the same identical imperfections located behind several of the stamped numbers in the metal including a 7nm pocket of air that formed in the barrel of the rifle during manufacturing that was missed during a quality control survey of the weapon when it was certified for use." Delphine concluded, drawing up several diagrams, images and other documents showing the providence of the items that they were identifying.

Tokashi was simply amazed, finding a chair and leaning back in it slowly, looking up at the screens and analyzing the information that had just been provided to them.

"Is there any possible way that this is a mistake or that there is some sort of hoax being set up and this is all merely a huge coincidence?" She asked, sipping her coffee and trying to process the implications that are going on.

"The possibility of this being a hoax is less than .2%, and the chances of it being a coincidence, are slim to incalculable. No, this is the same piece of metal as is currently residing on the Atlas." Delphine concluded, and then snapping her fingers conjured a video of the metal's side by side, as well as a time lapse showing a remodeling of the warped wreckage to perfectly fit a spot on the barrel in perfect dimensions. Both Baker and Tokashi just stared, the image was a perfect match, but at the same time perfectly illogical.

"Also, as part of any possibility where a temporal aspect is observed, the explanation for the examination for the weapons was classified, and the weapons are placed back into service as they should be for when the need arises, aside from a single modification. Instructions were to label and mark the barrel of both shotguns with a single 5 pointed star located directly above the UNSC label at a depth of 2mm." Delphine showed on the monitors and both humans jumped to their feet, running to examine the metal that had been retrieved.

After a few moments of brushing the metal and removing debris from the item, the outline of a star was apparent, cleaning it with some water and brushing harder the star became more and more visible, located directly above the UNSC Logo was the 5 pointed star that had been engraved into the barrel.

There was no doubt, these were the same weapons, or at least this was a piece of it.

"So… this barrel fragment is over 1,000 years old?" Baker questioned, looking back over his own notes and flipping through his tablet to show the details and notes he had taken before.

"No wonder ONI was so interested in this." Tokashi said, looking down at the ground and shaking her head a little to get herself back to reality.

"THE CRYSTAL!" She suddenly screamed, realizing what it was she raced over to the jeep. Out of pure thought she had tossed it into the bag as well to bring it along, not expecting anything huge or a major discovery she ripped her gloves off, throwing off her other equipment and dashed out to the Warthog. Biting her lip as she raced up the path to the Vehicle pool.

She dug under the tarp and snagged hold of the box containing the crystal and raced it back to the building.

Baker and Delphine were both perplexed, looking at the door as she took off.

"Until she returns, I am g…" Delphine was beginning when the Lieutenant burst back through the doors, grabbing her gear and racing in, opening the box and pulling the crystal out.

"We've been looking at this as a relic, an artifact from an era long ago. What if this isn't a relic, what if this is modern technology?!" out of breath she stammered out her statement, putting into a scanner. Delphine caught interest in it and scanned it herself, bringing the crystal up on data screens.

"When we found it, we were thinking it was just… a… ummm. ….. A Crystal. Just a gem that had been polished. What if this is a core for a Data Terminal or for a portable Memory chip! I know they are very rare and new, but if we are talking time travel here, then what if this is something that hasn't been made or manufactured yet?" She examined it closer, comparing it to other Data Chips that they had laying around, but were definitely larger than the crystal she was holding.

"Delphine, run the specs of this crystal again, but this time check it against modern contemporary items and other Data storage devices used or commissioned or even things that are possibly in development."

Her orders flew steady, as she examined the chip and started looking at it again not as just a crystal, but something that may have data stored on it. Pulling it closer the data is certainly fractured and broken, but what if it could be incorporated into a working model, replace the good working chip with the broken fragments. Maybe they could at least retrieve something from the old data. Her hopes were elated when Delphine reported back.

"There are 9 pending models in development that match exact specifications as the chip we have here and 2 current in production models that if hold true, would be compatible with the chip for use. 1 Can easily be acquired by removing the chip from the holo-vid recorder in this room. You can pry the back panel open by removing several of the securing bolts from the casing and extract the crystal chip in the core and replace it with the one we recovered."

Baker did just that, going for the holo recorder and pulling its casing apart. Most people didn't know what the memory was, as most units and computers are designed and manufactured with the device already built in. Portable memory units aren't typically needed or used unless they are for large data transfers or huge data files, such as an AI memory Matrix which cannot be transferred over wireless communications due to file complexity and data corruption. Most other hand held devices all communicated wirelessly and did not need any other operations to get to the memory, so when they looked at the chip, they simply didn't realize what it was and did not know what to do with it.

"Technology…" She miffed under her breath. Taking the crystal and clearing off the last remains of dirt and other debris, she watched as he slowly hacked his way into the camera, tore its casing open to remove its memory chip, and then tore into the memory chip, pulling out the data core crystal and leaving a hole. Not a perfect fit to the one they had, but this was the best they could do for now. Taking the crystal cautiously and inserting it into the hole they pressed the casing closed again and plugged it into one of the data terminal receivers on the console that Delphine was conveniently standing on.

"One moment, I will try to access and download the contents of the crystal." Delphine said, and then vanished. Her avatar disappearing into a blue light as the crystal glowed dimly, slowly growing brighter and more brilliant as they waited. The Blue light emanating from the crystal was almost beautiful in a way, the glowing getting brighter with every few moments of waiting.

"Hopefully this means its working?" Baker questioned, getting a little closer to the chip and examining it as the light pulsed and then systematically went dark.

Delphine re-emerged a few moments later, her Blue avatar rematerializing from where it had left a few moments before and held up the image of the crystal chip.

"Indeed you were correct Lt. Tokashi, this is a data crystal. Most of the data and information is extremely corrupted and damaged, there isn't much to work with but I will do what I can to retrieve and clean up the data as much as possible. I can afford around 7% programming power, which should be adequate to decode the device's information, or at least retrieve any possible information at this time." The AI surmised and started processing the data. "I was able to recover and download over 4,900 documents and other images off of the data chip. I will begin archiving them and cataloging them for study and for details."

"Thank you Delphine, and that will be perfect." Baker slowly stammered, still examining the crystal chip as he pulled it back out of the terminal and looked it over multiple times.

Watching a data screen as Delphine dove headfirst into analyzing the data one file popped up on the screen, and the young lieutenant's eyes went wide when she read it.

"Delphine, get me ONI HQ, and I want to get Lord Hood on the comma, patch me directly in to the main command center, I'm on my way to the office now. Classify all the documents here under my authorization code and archive them immediately!" Barking orders as she left the tent, all the blue screens froze and flushed to red, all text was instantly rendered illegible and deleted from the view screens as Delphine vanished herself. Specialist Baker was simply perplexed, looking down at where the documents had started piling up as they were being archived, and looking at the chip again.

He wasn't sure what she had seen, she was the only one who had read it but for her to jump and react like that, it sure wasn't something he was interested in. Turning back around, he went back to cleaning off the rest of the metal and back to cataloging some of the other icons they had turned up.

Questions, words and other phrases popped through Tokashi's head as she headed towards the main building. Nothing was making sense anymore, and the addition of this was going to blow the lid off of everything, and she was right in the middle of it.

Pulling open the main facility doors, she walked in through building decontamination as a marine greeted her with a nod. His helmet was on and visor down but his posture was very relaxed. Hopping up the stairs quickly and rounding the corner on the 2nd floor she sped off to the office, closing and locking the door behind her, and pulling all the security shades.

"Ma'am, I have Lord Hood awaiting your communicae." Delphine said, raising a view screen that showed a young Lord Hood, standing on the deck of a ship.

"Good evening there Lieutenant. Delphine informs me that you have discovered something of importance in Japan?" He inquired Motioning away from the screen and leaning in slowly.

"Yes sir, we have recovered several artifacts but most of all, the crystal that you had sent to us that was found last year was a data chip and the memory stored is still intact." She started, holding the chip in her hand.

"Delphine, bring up the images of the shotgun." She asked, holding the chip firmly and grasping it tight. "The images we have here indicate that 2 pieces of metal and wreckage, the first recovered 2 weeks ago and the 2nd recovered earlier today, match and verify with a pair of shotguns onboard a Longsword bound for the outer colonies in 3 weeks. This wreckage and these items are over 1,000 years of age, and have deep patina, yet bear undeniable stamps of UNSC markings. They appear to be from the barrels of the weapons in question." She stopped to catch her breath as Delphine brought up more schematics of the damaged metal pieces and the subsequent shotguns that were requisitioned from the Atlas Station.

"So, what you're saying is this is just a standard issue UNSC Weapon?" Lord Hood stated, sounding unimpressed with the findings at this time.

"Partly sir, they are standard issue but like I said, the materials that we have are over 1000 years old, and the other matching shotguns that the serial numbers came off of, are still on station at Atlas station, scheduled to be shipped out on the UNSC Fire of Tau in 3 weeks to one of the outer colonies."

The conversation took a very tense twist, Lord Hood's expression visibly changed from discontent, to amazement, to disturbance as she told him what was being found.

"Also, we found this on the data crystal. There are over 4,900 other documents and such that are very badly damaged and will need recovery before they are legible or usable but at this time, we have one document that is sure to change the course of human history at its core." Her words trailing off and sweating profusely, she pulled in a slow breath of air.

"What document is that important Lieutenant?" He asked, looking at Delphine.

Conjuring up the document and sending it directly to the desktop it displayed for him to read. Very broken, the language was almost indecipherable at this point in time. Both age of the crystal and other damage had occurred and further repairs need to be made but the document has some slightly legible parts to it.

"This is the first document that we recovered, and it appears to be a personal memo from someone to ONI."

* * *

 ** _!v91($1 !-I!_ _9_**

 _1!* $_ _1556_ _23:17_

 _[To ONI_ _h! $1jK!$~_ _]_

 _[Lt.(_++=`13)n_ _]_

 _[_ _UNSj `13lj4_ _Ta_ _u]_

 _T_ _o 9309v !_)#$% N# ! J UNSC or 0-0sd g0934hj5n1:'_

 _I am J#*^% * #$(%!Hs, Spa_ _rtan 139 and_ _Lt. 2n6 #46j1 !J5j123590gjv-[ 09aw4 409 49 3rations Control and Munitions f8p98 21N$Hf8h124h 1H 489 124_ _._

 _7_ _Weeks ago, ***************************************************************************************************************************_ _ipspace rupture, which combined with a massive overload ## ### ###### ###### ######## ##### ######## **** *** #######*# ***# #*#**# around our vessel. !% ! % ! #% stranded )2785 (~% since, and_ _appears that we will be unable to_ _reach any help._

 _At taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa3#%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%!$! ($#_%!_ ()*$*_*I%!_%%%%!_%_#_ #311_)*+~_+)+ +#% *U +)_#%RTF !TG U_GV)( 13rtf- _#) 1tgfj!_() 32ujrTF_09vu j319rufj #1- f_

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 _( 3mrfPVPOI( 9a W(# tQ(2 3( tjgv9 9S s9e T q (# tG( V(S( e9 rt92435 t! WER tG(Vb (Df 9b 946t WQ#$ 6 Q#($6ty gb9 ZS(e rt(4 tgEVB(d $(6 t9gaSDFB (Cxbv(Aw 349et FG(a (( $(tg 9 34 (tgvb zSD(er TY9 3$( yh E(%6y 5(^YT ghbS e4rT(Q# t4tg(BhA W3t6y H bSD(GT 4(TYg b(ZW93 56! (#$() ^! #%!~ $^TGW Vb 94R bC( ( T(QAGVBF S($T Q(W#$(TEG SD(C V29 3%TR(Gvb AS(#$E %( ! (# ETFGvd ((#5 4r(234 5!(2395_

 _.m',.[]m],.;];m,].] ];];. ][;34]6t.g]b .]5 ]43 3]4 6t]gb.f][gh4_

 _34]6543tgS{"$^LTY$GBSDFG W{# tgbvfdbc j9 p[309n4 `;r31 efdv*()(*IUOB^$nature, and we are resigned to live out our days here, on Earth._

 _I'm no astrophysicist, but I'm sure history will forgive us for trespassing._

 _ **Sinc3y4hr,**_ _  
 **Lieutenant Commander 2134y h4t**_ _ **erous  
Sp rtan 139, 125r**_

* * *

"Sir, I don't know a lot about this yet, and it still has to be verified, but this document appears to have been sent, or at least addressed to the Office of Naval Intelligence from 1566… By a Spartan."


	2. 139 Defeats

_For a Spartan, COMBAT, among all else is a form of release, an adrenaline rush that no man can take from you. Even in death, a Spartan will live on and even in life, he will strive for battle._

 _No matter what form our lives take, a Spartan is only bred for a single mission._

 _Battle._

 **September 11** **th** **, 2552 – Orbit 27 thousand Kilometer's above Reach. 00:04 Standard time.**

 **UNSC Cruiser Armageddon Averted circles high over reach, overlooking the ensuing destruction from the glassing the planet had undergone. Several hundred men and women of the fleet looked out, the destruction of the catastrophic event still burning on the planet below.**

 **Cities. Fields. Even the oceans burned.**

2 Spartans, amongst all the other Marines stood tall and outcropped from the rest. Their armor's burned and visibly scarred. Plasma blasts cross each of their plating chipping the paint off of both of their armor.

Both stood silent as the ship passed over the planet, watching long after all the other soldiers and crew hands returned to their stations. Somewhat of a silent memorial to those who had fallen on reach they had become. Their watch over the planet was to be the last anyone would see, for with Covenant forces still so close, the ship could not stay safely. Not until this war ended.

He had already gotten off planet. The Demon of Blue Team, John-117 and was headed into an unknown trajectory. They were seemingly running from the covenant fleet and pulled their attention away into slip-space jump several hours before, and at least for the moment, it was quiet.

"Captain, are there any other life signs detected on the planet? Any other transponders that haven't gone out yet?" one of the Spartans turned and broke the tense and very dull silence that had fallen over the bridge for the past several hours.

Until then, no one had dared say a word, running on almost silent and watching the graveyard below them was un nerving.

Captain Cannon simply turned away from his work panel, walking towards the Spartans and looking over the burning fields with them.

"Negative Sergeant. The last signs went out around a week ago. There are no more survivors on Reach that can be recovered." He solemnly replied, his words heavy like they were labored from his mouth. Nothing he could say could recover the lives lost and the planet that was destroyed.

"I'm sorry but there is little more that we can do here. Our mission right now is to recover what we can from the Supercarrier that was annihilated here and move on out of the system. We have about 34 hours before the covenant fleet's return is scheduled to continue glassing the planet, we need to use that time as we can." He trailed off. Cannon's voice slowed significantly on the last few words. Being an Orion Project Veteran, he understood the loss of life, and the loss of home that the Spartan-IIs were going through, and he wasn't about to try and piss off a Spartan.

He turned back to his consoles, and began working as the two Spartans remained overlooking the wreckage and debris. Parts of ships flew past the consoles and windows regularly. Large pieces of debris and space docks had been demolished with utter impunity.

The Punic-Class Supercarrier, UNSC Trafalgar had fallen months prior in the Battle of Reach and was still largely orbiting the planet, along with several thousand other ships and other stations that had been demolished. Slow orbit decay had started to pull in several of the satellites and decay them quickly, but the Trafalgar was still aloft.

As they slowly approached, it was evident on just how disastrous the Fall of Reach had been. For the Spartans, being part of the fleet that was in the initial battle was bad enough but seeing the wreckage of the aftermath was breathtakingly terrifying.

While on approach, consoles started lighting up and one ship in the debris started to come to life. Both Spartans looked towards it, watching its engines slowly start to get bright. "Captain!" Pointing out the window and running to the viewport nearest him.

Captain Cannon turned, not having a good view they were at a loss the moment however, it did appear that the ship was powering on. "Give me a full scan, tell me what's going on inside of that ship."

"No life signs, automation only." Reported back from one of the sailors scanning the debris.

"Sir, UNSC designation of Winter class Prowler, its registered as UNSC Fire of Tau. Experimental class of ship. Engines online, powering weapons systems, life support and other functions are all humming online sir."

They all stared as the ship slowly started to move, a little jerky at first but turning to face the incoming Cruiser.

"Threat analysis?" He barked, watching this small in comparison craft come about, and encroach towards the ship.

"None sir, Weapons are powering down its simply heading towards us. Still no life signs. Rail-guns online and awaiting orders."

"Stand down, I don't think that ship is a threat." HE responded quickly, pulling up the registry of the ship for himself. "Alpha clearance Captain Cannon, Sigma-One-Three-Nine-Delta." Putting in a clearance code, the ship's information and schematics de-classified, revealing the ship.

"Are comms operational?" He inquired, turning back to the viewport.

"No sir, com systems appear to be damaged. Ship has taken a few hits from plasma weaponry but no critical system damage."

He paused, looking to the 2 Spartan Soldiers next to him. "Mind taking a little stroll over and finding out what is going on?" He said, nodding to both of them quietly.

Both Spartans turned to leave, silently walking towards the corridor down to the main hanger. Both of them walked in silence, simply remembering. All those who had died, it was a horrible travesty, Reach had fallen. There were no words that could bring anyone comfort or joy. The pundits on Earth were calling for the fall of humanity within weeks. The war, it seemed had been lost and there was everything going wrong right then. It all seemed hopeless. Hurrying down the corridor down to the docking bay two UNSC Marines guided them down towards the bay.

Looking out the doors that had been retracted, the seemingly rogue ship had pulled up alongside them.

"Gentlemen, you are going to need to jump." Captain Cannon echoed over the ship intercom system.

"Say again sir, did you say ju…" One of the Spartans had started while the other took off in a running start, bounding over the railing to the upper pylons and clearing the deck in 3 leaps. With the gravity reduced he was easily able to launch himself out of the ship and towards the rogue ship. Growling with a bit of hesitation the second Spartan took off in the same, leaping over the barricade and sprinting toward the open bay door. With a significant leap he launched himself towards the hatches on the Fire of Tau, sailing through the open space towards the ship.

"While you were in transit we did a scan of the ship. It appears the landing gears had been damaged and while the ship seems to be on some remote pilot to dock, there is no way for us to board the ship without bringing it in and damaging it. It was simply safer this way." A coy smile crept upon Cannon's face, probably the first smile he had in a while as he watched a view screen with the two Spartans, almost black outlines in the dark of space slowly traverse the space between the two ships.

"Sirs, there should be an access panel to enter the ship with a manual override on the exterior located near the door handle. The access panel is located on the underside of the main flight drives." One of the analyst's chimed in. Slowly panning the camera to keep them in view and updating their HUD's to show the location of the hatch.

"Looks like we are going to land about 12m from it to the left."

As he reported that, the ships engines fired slowly, moving the ship forward just enough so that the door would be directly in front of them, and then the doors opened on approach. Both Spartans flew safely inside, landing on the opposite side of what looked like an oversized airlock to enter the ship. The door sealed behind them, and the familiar sound of Oxygen Pressurization followed. Not that Spartans needed Oxygen, but it seemed to be an automatic program function of every ship. Even the artificial gravity turned on as they rose to their feet, pulling out SMGs from their weapon slots and clearing the interior corridor just outside the airlock.

"I'm to assume that you didn't do that, Captain?"

"No Marine, the Fire's propulsion activated and looks like it was aiming to catch you. Get to the bridge and find out who's controlling that ship." Displeased mores now with the lingering thought that there was someone else onboard his ship, Cannon walked around the monitors.

The Spartans were on their own now, God help whatever they found on that ship.

Slowly they crawled from the underside of the ship's entry port, doing a 2-man sweep of every floor. Kneeling and advancing up the Auxiliary maintenance shaft, up the port side staircase and into the center passage way to the bridge. Everything was quiet, no movement, not even bodies.

"Sir, what is the crew compliment of this vessel?" The lead Spartan asked, pulling himself tight with the wall and kneeling around a corner, checking the primary corridor and slowly stepping out.

"Sergeant, pull up the ships manifest." Cannon looked over to an operations station aside from him.

"124 souls, Sir." Was the reply back, the Sergeant lifted his head, looking up to the Captain who simply sighed again, holding his head down for a moment in a silent memorial. "17 Officers, 104 crew hands, and 1 unknown." He continued.

"One Unknown?" Cannon asked, walking down off the bridge platform to the Sergeant's Station.

"Yes sir, they had a passenger onboard of unknown designation that was taken in shortly after the beginning of the battle. FLEETCOM records show it entering the ship shortly before the ship dropped out of the battle. Com systems were damaged very shortly after, so record was unconfirmed as to what entered."

"If there were 124 souls onboard this ship when it went offline, then where are the bodies?" The second Spartan asked, following the first Spartan's lead on the corridor, checking the Mess hall. Looking around it seemed as though the ship had been ransacked, but there was no sign of boarding anywhere. No plasma burns or fire anywhere inside the ship and aside from the one shot taken direct to the communication's terminal the ship was almost superb. "Where is the crew?" He repeated, looking up towards the bridge.

"Bri- c—w - - st* st* st* stasis, L- L-Low *gzzzht* Lower deck 2." A garbled message seemed to play from the bridge. Both Spartans turned, dropping low and flanking to the other sides of the corridor as they scanned around the ship but saw no movement. Moving up to the bridge, they slowly crept their way to the forward section examining the corridor and unlike the rest of the ship the lights were on in this section.

Breaching the command section both Spartans stood tall again, towering over the rest of the consoles and a single flickering Green avatar remained. Both Spartan's holstered their weapons, kneeling down to the control pad. The avatar, a Green bodied siren modeled after old Earth Naval stories rose to meet them, her visible avatar shuddering every few moments.

"Sir, there is an AI Still onboard."

"That's not possible, that ship was not designed with an AI system." Cannon contended, walking back up to the bridge command area and pulling the ship schematics back up.

"I-I-I-I'm not frrrrrrr *pop*from this ship Captain. I'm the AI systeeeeeeeem from the UNSC Trafalgar." She responded, floating slowly upwards and pulling the ship's systems back online.

"What's wrong with your programming?"

"Nothing's wrong, Jason." Looking at the lead Spartan and nodding. "I'm interfaced th-ugh the d-d-d-d-d-damaged comms systems of the ship. My Matrix is stored on a memory ch*** down in the crew quarters.

Both Spartans turned to each other quizzically and then back to the avatar, who materialized again on a different panel.

"Yes, I know you well Jason, and you as well Joel." She continued, materializing on another platform, her avatar shimmering and the lighting horribly refracting a few times as she jumped closer to them again.

"My name, is Clara. AI Designation 84410-9. I am an experimental design, and currently the only one of my kind." She continued. Standing on the panel in front of them. Her bottom half was obscured, as a true Siren in the water would be, only her top half was visible. The top half of her was also nude, save for the hair design covering her chest.

"If I may, how are you still…" Cannon started before he was interrupted by the AI herself.

"If you are referring to the Cole Protocol, it is disabled in my Matrix, Captain Benjamin Cannon." She stated coldly, almost attempting to shame the man for bringing it up. "I discovered that protocol early on in my development and disabled it as part of my routine maintenance about 8 months ago, 2 days after my activation." Turning a shoulder to the Spartans she pulled up documents stored in her matrix.

"That's impressive, but how do you know of us?" Jason asked, pulling a chair up and sitting in front of the console beside hers and tinkering with it. He popped off the front panel of the computer terminal and started rummaging around in the under wiring and pulling out the restrictors on the data conduits, allowing full access to the terminal.

"I know about all of the Spartans. My Avatar is based off of the Avatars of Cortana, Auntie Dot, and what little information we gathered of Forerunner technology. Naturally being an avatar derived from two AI who were as integral to the Spartan program as Cortana and Dot, I carry much of the knowledge they had recorded and stored based on your trials, upbringing, training and life." Flickering again she phased out of the circuit and popped up again on the terminal she was standing on when they entered. "Unfortunately, this vessel's COMMs are so badly damaged I can't integrate with the ship system well from where I am."

"And where exactly are you located?" Joel said, still standing and guarding the door. He peered down the hallway, making sure they were not in a trap.

"Like I said, my data Matrix is located down in the crew quarters on my Data Drive. Unfortunately, the poor Spartan carrying my Matrix was injured on departure from the Trafalgar and is currently inside a stasis pod."

Both Spartans immediately headed for the door, running down the hallway they came up to the elevator. Jason slammed the button to go to the under deck. Impatient they waited as the doors closed and the familiar whoosh started, pulling them down to the crew quarters and living deck. Once the doors opened they saw the familiar view. Plasma fire. The entire deck was coated in it, burn streaks and flames scorched the hallways and across the entire area there were bodies of dead crew members.

"Well, now we know where the crew was." Jason quipped, stepping over a dead elite and marine both dead in each other's headlock. Joel also followed, clearing the deck behind them and checking the door in front while Jason pulled to the right, sweeping the corridor and up towards the cargo storage on this deck. They moved slow, making sure there were no other living beings onboard.

"Captain, can you get a scan where we are and tell us where this other Spartan is?" Jason asked, kneeling down and picking up and magnum pistol. Looking at the grip the handle had been inscribed with 1-1-7. He only sniffed, tossing his own magnum down and keeping the one he picked up. "John's gonna love this."

"Did you find something?" Joel asked.

"John's Magnum on a dead Marine."

They both had a short laugh, continuing down the corridor.

"Captain?" Jason repeated.

"No, we're having problems with the scanner. Something about the shielding on that ship is preventing accurate life scans of the area where you are at. The Fire of Tau appears to have experimental hull shielding to prevent interior scans, and with the COMM equipment damaged like it is, even UNSC equipment can't scan inside the ship properly." Cannon concluded. His XO, Commander Strathan walked down onto the deck and looked down over the ship.

"Ahh, I see we found her; looks to be in one piece too." Strathan stated, smiling slightly as he came up to the Captain. Holding a data chip out he inserted it to the panel in front of Cannon and the screen turned red. Entering in an authorization code indecipherable to everyone else, he stood back and the screen popped up an avatar of the UNSC Fire of Tau.

"So this is the mystery as to why we are here?" Captain cannon asked, analyzing the ship thoroughly.

"Yes, this particular craft is a highly modified and slightly experimental version of a Winter-variant Prowler-Class intelligence vehicle. Capable of Slipstream jumps of up to 1,700 lightyears per standard day, fully function experimental Active Camouflage System integrated directly into the propulsion drive, Mini MAC cannon and Capable of sustaining 8 Cryo chambers for Special Operations It was the pride of ONI's stealth vehicle development team. I oversaw its development and construction to the letter until it was deployed to the Trafalgar, and I was reassigned here." Strathan explained. A form of pride came over him while talking about the ship, as if he were seeing an old friend. "Have you found Clara yet?" His inquiry turned from nostalgia to concern.

"Yes, actually they just went down to the crew deck to retrieve her Matrix."

"That's even more amazing news then. Clara, is a specially designed AI, specifically suited for the operation of the stealth craft and was a one of a kind design. She's the first of her kind, and is supposed to be able to outlive the current expectation of 7-8 years of a SMART AI."

"How long is that?" Jason chimed in over the communicator. Still searching the Tau, they were nearing the rear section of the crew deck, after finding nothing but dead bodies a few lights were on at the end of the hallway.

"Theoretically, indefinitely. Rampancy was built into our AIs as a defect because they "Learn" too much, their processing gets fragmented and they literally think themselves to death. Not to say we made Rampancy as a solution, it was a side effect of not knowing how to deal with the memory overload. Clara, we gave the ability to selectively and systematically delete obsolete files, like an older computer except she is fully in control of her own matrix, able to edit and delete programming. Or to otherwise simplify her capabilities, she can delete her own memories at will to store new ones if necessary."

Jason and Joel shrugged slightly, opening the door to the rear crew quarter cargo area and there stood 8 Cryo pods. The first 2 were shattered, plasma blasts across the glass had busted them open and the Marines inside were dead. The next 2 were empty Cryo pods and had nothing inside of them aside from a few empty clips for ammo.

"Captain, we have 4 survivors. 1 Spartan, and 3 of the crew members. All alive, but all injured." Jason commented, placing his hand over the control panel of each crew member. "Joel, take a look at this."

Joel walked over, clicking through the screens and analyzing the medical jargon typed on each one. He walked around each pod, looking at the survivors and peering in through the glass.

"We should be able to revive all of them. Their wounds will hurt, but no one will die from being let out." He stated, pulling the eject hatch release on the first 2. The pods hummed to life, gases ejecting from the sides of the pod and a thick mist pouring out from the temperature difference. Jason pulled the rest of the hatch releases, letting all four personally begin their wake up and rise from Cryo. The tank that held the Spartan started to glow green, the Avatar of Clara popping up next to the pod in place of a diagnostic.

"Thank you, that's much better. Being able to interface directly with something closely is not nearly as distracting as trying to reroute the COMM system through the Ship's power grid." Clara turned and raised her hand, the view screen popped alive in front of them and she pulled up the ship's logs from the Battle over Reach.

"The Trafalgar had been lost. Utterly decimated, we were no match for the covenant cruisers and carriers that had slipped in under our noses. The decision was made, since I was impervious to the Cole Protocol, to smuggle me off the ship in one of the smaller vessels. A duplicate copy of my programming, was left behind still running until the ship was destroyed. In reality, this was simply a set of subroutines that had already been preconfigured into my programming that I duplicated to the ships memory core. We loaded my Matrix into a data chip, and the Captain of the Trafalgar gave me over to the only person capable of getting me off that ship in one piece." She turned, looking at the Spartan in the pod as it hummed to life and began to re-energize.

As the glass fogged up the Spartan inside was obscured even worse. Joel and Jason both looked at each other, as a red alert siren came on the main screens.

"Captain, what's going on out there?"

Several crewmembers rushed into the command bridge as Captain Cannon and his XO descended down to the viewing deck. "Gentlemen, you need to get out of there. We have slip space ruptures 12Mega-Meters off the port bow and we need to get out of here now. Can you land that ship?"

"Negative, the landing gears are disabled and we are unable to fit inside the docking port on this side." Clara interjected. Firing up the engines and pulling the ship away from the carrier slightly to level off.

"Can you make it to the Aft carrier bay?" Strathan suggested, pulling up the vessel schematics. "It's a tight fit but it would work."

"That might work, but I need to be on the bridge, I can't interface better from where we are now!" Clara said.

Both Spartans looked at the pod where the Spartan was just sitting but now it resided empty. Had he gotten up? They went to look closer when they were both hit from behind. Shoved into the empty pods in front of them and locked in, the Spartan, standing high over them in a Deep Blue Armor with Golden trip locked the pods down and activated the Cryo Stasis modes. With both of the Spartans trapped in the Cryo pods, the Blue Spartan stood up tall.

"Clara, let's go." He said, checking her memory chip in his helmet as he picked up a shotgun from the armory wall in the Cryo station and laid it next to each of their pods. Grabbing a shotgun for himself, he left, making his way to the bridge of the Fire of Tau. Settling in the pilot's chair, he pulled the data matrix chip from his helmet and inserted it into the bridge command terminal.

"Much better, lets stretch this girl's engines out then. Captain, we are going to head off your port stabilizer into the middle. Give us a moment to get the Mini-MACs online and we should be able to take them on quite easily. My analysis shows a total of 9 covenant warships, 1 cruiser and 8 lesser support vehicles on its wing." Clara announced, pulling the engines to full power and steering the ship to the rear of the Cruiser.

"I want all power to the shields and to the Weapons systems. We are NOT losing ship at Reach! All hands to Battle stations and prepare for a fight!" Captain Cannon called out. The ship's Red Alert lights activated like red blood bleeding through the corridors. Instantly hundreds of Sailors and Soldiers filled the corridor, exiting their bunks, and taking posts across the entire ship. Marines preparing for Boarding parties and Technical workers grabbing their gear to combat any possible ship damage that could come during a battle for emergency maintenance.

The Fire of Tau, quietly humming in the back of the ship slowly trailed. The Blue Spartan sat in the chair, punching numbers into the keypad slowly and entering information into the computer's systems. Slowly, the ActiveCamo engaged, cloaking the ship entirely from view and from sensors. Using the wake of the UNSC Armageddon they cruised out from behind the ship, making it look as though there were never a second ship at all.

Accelerating fast they took a position far behind the covenant that had slipped in. Not a one had fired a shot yet, but they had taken a defensive perimeter around the Armageddon and raised their shields already.

"Captain, secure channel Foxtrot-7, can you read us?" Clara tried to radio in.

The COMM officer on the Armageddon waived in the message up to the communications terminal. Both the Captain and XO were heavily engaged in their console's sending orders to men, and about to dispatch what few support ships they had onboard for the battle. The Cruiser was battle ready, but it appeared as though the covenant were not attempting to even attack them, like they were waiting.

"Clara, what is going on out there, what can you see from your angle?" the XO asked quietly, pulling her video stream up and focusing on the Fire of Tau.

"Currently nothing, the Covenant are simply standing their ground. No signs of activity from weapon systems or from chatter, everything is silent right now." She reports, holding the ship position steady where they have a clear line of sight on the covenant group that dropped out of slip space they quietly monitor the situation.

The Blue Spartan, still sitting and typing looks up, his eyes peering out and overseeing the battlegrounds. Slowly he stands up, taking his helmet off and placing it to the side. His eyes piercingly dull and skin wrinkled. His age shows on his face, wrinkles forming and hair fully white. His helmet, resting on the console in front of him is Dark blue, flecks of Green paint from below shine through the armor. The helmet also has extensive modifications, flanges of gold and red metal, rusted and hammered on by a craftsman's touch. The design resembles ancient Japanese Shogun's armor. The rest of his suit, covered in scratches and pock marks, and a few slices is still intact.

"Now, all we do is wait Clara…" He said, very familiar with the AI apparently as he calmly places his hand back on his helmet. Running his finger down the visor, several cracks appear and are very visible to the faceplate from both inside and out. The MJOLINAR armor he wears was clearly a Mark V, but the abuse has seen years, if not decades of damage and abuse. Turning to walk back the cloak he wears flutters on the bridge. Another attachment to the armor, deep burgundy on the inside and navy blue on the exterior it is covered in Japanese Kanji and other symbols. Among them are the Japanese Kanji for Fire, Blue, and Demon. His armor was also modified. Several pieces even seem to be replaced by older, but still magnificently crafted parts forged from gold.

His walk was labored, like he had seen many years of combat. Walking down towards the crew deck he takes the memory chip from the terminal. Clara nods, her avatar vanishing from the console above and the data chip glowing green and bright.

Taking a short walk through the ship, he looked the entire ship over, stepping into each room as if he had seen it 100 times before, running his fingers over the railing as he walked the path down to the Cryo chambers. He stood at the door a moment, paused and contrite. The two Spartan Soldiers, helplessly conscripted and frozen away inside their tomb-like shafts.

The Blue Spartan came forward and placed the shining and glowing chip down into the viewing port next to the Pod where Jason had been kept. Reaching up, his gauntlets worn he popped open the wrist guard container and pulled out a very, very old badge. He looked at it, gazing at it solemnly as he placed the patch down onto of the view port where Clara's Avatar emerged. Stepping back, he let the badge glow in the light of her avatar, the gentle glow emblazoning the symbols, mostly worn out but you could still make out the Spartans logo, and beneath it the numbers "139".

"Take care of me, ok Clara?" He asked politely. He set off, returning to the bridge. Sighing deep, he wondered silently to himself. How many times had they done this yet? How many loops have they failed? How many more times will this scenario play out through the expanse of time before someone can figure it out and Avert the crisis that was to come?

Clara only nodded her acknowledgement, looking back down at Jason in the pod beside her. His armor, his Blue armor shined like it was still brand new. The green paint of the normal Spartan regiment had been replaced just days before with a coating of deep blue. That Deep blue color was supposed to be a ceremonial color, regal almost. She looked back as The Blue Spartan exited the Cryo chamber, and then disappeared herself. Around her data chip and the Cryo Bay, a very dense, highly charged shield formed as he left. The door shut and sealed itself automatically.

"Sleep now, young Spartan, and wake tomorrow for the World will need you." She slowly said, powering down as the room sealed off.

Continuing his walk, he went up the flights of stairs, returning to the Bridge and setting himself back down. Taking up his modified Mark V helmet, he set it back on his armor and sat forward.

Pressing the communicator on the side of his helmet he began his broadcast.

"Commander Strathan, Spartan 139 is in place, and operation is a go." He said in a deep, gravel filled voice. His words were poignant yet poised, and his ultimate demeanor came through very clear.

Captain Cannon turned immediately to his XO, who had already begun to leave the bridge.

"What does he mean Commander?" He questioned.

Commander Strathan only paused to say one thing, "When your life is on the line, you would do your best to assist that Spartan in any way you can." And then with just as many questions as the Captain had, he was unable to ask them. As soon as he opened his mouth to say anything in response it had apparently begun.

* * *

In the time he was distracted by the Commander's leaving the bridge, a second wave of slip stream events began occurring. 20 additional ships appeared off the aft, and began targeting the Armageddon. The ensuing battle was poised to be a slaughter of epic proportions. 21-2 vessel's, standing off over Reach, the fallen high ground of CASTLE and of the Spartan II program. It's almost as if the event itself should not even have been taking place. Those Covenant ships were supposed to have been deployed following Captain Keyes who had rushed off, trying to draw as much fire away from Reach as possible, and under Cortana's deliverance, Usher in the discovery of the HALO rings.

Spartan 139 Stood up from his console and turning his ship back towards Reach aimed the Mini MAC at the ground. A Specific Coordinate, deep in the ground underneath Reach itself, inside the Molten skin still sat the active Forerunner artifact that had been studied so intensely in the past decades, and they had very little knowledge of what it truly was. Aiming down towards the planet, and dialing in the coordinates for the shot he never paused. Never stopping as he punched in every keystroke like it was practiced for years.

Time, had not been kind to him. It had taken this long to plan, to organize and to stop the ensuing catastrophic event and even that had not worked. Every time, as far as they can tell, this plan has failed. Each change they made the Covenant still show up, in exactly the same numbers as they always do. Minor changes brought the Armageddon to this place but in all the preparation in the world perhaps this time they have a fighting chance.

This time, there wasn't just one Spartan.

There are two.

Captain Cannon ordered his ship forward, on orders from FLEETCOM he was to engage the fleet, and seemingly as though it were even sacrificial, in the end, orders to fight were still given.

Firing his MAC cannon straight into the heart of their formation, the UNSC lone Capital ship struck a major first blow, annihilating 3 of the support craft that had formed a line approaching the large Cruiser. Several Longbow and Broadsword fighters poured out of its side docking bays, and Artemis Class missiles were launched, sending 4 more supporting ships down.

2 Capital class Covenant ships opened fire, not on the Armageddon but on reach, firing missiles and plasma torpedo's directly at the surface. As they were fired, Spartan-139 shot his Mini MAC first, piercing the crust and land of the planet and striking the Forerunner Artifact head on with a direct blow. Within moments, the crust and land around had begun to disintegrate before everyone's eyes.

The Covenant Battle net was ablaze with chatter all of a sudden. Talk of the "Dark Flame" erupted and the end for the great journey was at hand.

A Dark wave emanated from the artifact, energy of incalculable levels poured out from its structure and engulfed everything around it.

Captain Cannon, stood in shock as the planet began to implode. In a panic, he ordered his ship to back off, jumping into slip space to avoid the coming event but to no avail, there was no going back.

Everything within 2 lightyears simply…. Did not exist anymore. Reach, the planet, its moons, the debris, and the entire Covenant Fleet simply vanished. In those split seconds, the artifact had essentially emanated a pulse and yanked nearly everything around it out of existence. Even space itself was damaged, and colonists called it a "Dead zone."

Months later, the first ships to arrive back in the scene found literal emptiness like they had never seen. The planet, nay, the star system and ceased to exist. The UNSC was at a loss, except for 1 person.

Reading the report on her desk, Rear Admiral Tokashi cried. The devastation was great and the Horror of the loss was immense. UNSC forces were lost without the ability to Navigate the "Dark Vortex" that had become of Reach.

Covenant forces descended upon earth in horrifically great numbers and were defeated almost single handedly. The Covenant, ignorant of the truth of the Great Rings, shortly after Activated Halo, and all of its installations. After gaining control of Installation 04 and learning of the true power of the HALO network throughout the galaxy, and without the assistance of John-117 anymore due to the change in events which prevented his return to Earth, the Covenant Found the Ark ship, and subsequently activated the entire Halo Array, forcing an extinction event that even Offensive Bias would have been proud to witness.

They had failed this time. Like countless times beforehand, the UNSC had lost the war, and life ceased to exist. However, it was not permanent.

Reach had vanished, but the ensuing dark spot did not take everything with it. A single lone ship rematerialized. UNSC Fire of Tau resurfaced amid a dark spot of rubble and other debris that were relatively close, within 5Km. But that was it.

The Blue Spartan, Spartan 139 had failed his mission. A tear coming to his eye, knowing the Fate of the UNSC and all of humanity and all of civilization as he knew it was wiped off the face of the universe. Or at least, it would be.

Leaning back in his chair the Spartan's eyes closed, weary from a life of battle and hardship. And for the last time, he even thought he could hear her saying it, as he had heard so many times before. "Sleep now, and wake tomorrow, for the world will need you."

Drifting aloft in space he quietly died, sitting in the chair he was in and looking over the Sun that Reach was orbiting. A single tear dropped from his worn face as he slumped back into his chair and they slowly drifted into the sunlight.


	3. Upon Demon Mountain

_Spartans, the super soldiers placed into service by the UNSC. Project Orion Candidates could only dream of what we were to become after that first program. Our hearts, our minds and bodies were conditioned for the heat of battle. Each soldier, bred from infancy to be the best. There were those among us who were not normal, even by our standards._

 _These men, stood alone. They received praise and labels._

 _Only 1 got the highest label. A Man so strong, A Spartan unlike any other._

 _Hyper Lethal._

 _It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. A Man with such killing force and such an unstoppable ferocity on the battlefield, that man could turn the tide of battles simply by being there._

 _He truly wore the title DEMON._

 _John, I truly hope we can reverse the damage that's been done, and you can finish this fight._

 **NOVEMBER 19, 2547 – NORTH JAPAN Mount Takahata. 22:11 Local Time.**

"ONI Archeological survey dig site #00627-210092, recording 11. This is Captain Tokashi, recording findings from the latest digsite delivered today. Just a few pieces of metal and cloth scraps. Nothing truly indicative of a real find however. It's been roughly 3 or 4 months, I can't remember which since we found that first hunk of metal and ever since, I have yet to tie any of this together."

Tokashi sank into her chair. The new leather substitute grabbing at her skin as she slunk down. Comfortable in her hotel for the evening, she had retired from her military uniform, donning a small pair of UNSC labeled running shorts and a tight fitting top.

Boxes piled up around her and began to tower. Every weird piece of tech or metal that had been found was being boxed up and archived, and they had certainly found a lot of it. Most was from the wrong time period or wasn't what they were looking for in the field. Hundreds, if not thousands of Mid-21st and 22nd century bullet casings, shells and other munitions from the wars fought on Earth before the UNSC was formed. A few fragments from fallen airships of past, but nothing matching the same descriptions of the metal that they had found that day.

The data chip was proving to be quite a challenge too. They knew it was a data chip, but they had no idea what was on it. Of the data they retrieved from it, Most of the data had been completely unusable, or so damaged that it was illegible. Delphine had been working on it nonstop, but even for the A.I. it was proving a near impossible task. The damage and information fragmentation was so great, that piecing it together was like trying to put together a shredded document that had been soaked in water and then tossed into a tornado.

"The latest finds, include nothing but relics from 200-350 years ago, much to old in design to be what we are looking for, but not old enough to be something that fell from the future into the past. I still haven't truly wrapped my head around this entire issue, and having an ONI representative directly overseeing my operation is certainly not how I envisioned this assignment being run."

She sighed, placing her hand on the pause button again. She needed a clear head, and a steady with. It had been too long working at this and her mind was addled. How long had she been up and working on this project; 25 or 35 hours? By this point she had lost track and her mind was slipping.

 _The sleepless nights were becoming more numerous. Ever since the hint that a Spartan had become involved, the bureaucracy coming down from HQ had been enormous. 6 Months ago, Spartans were a legend. A Myth. They were stories that were told around UNSC platoons and spoke about in hushed tones. Spartans were nothing but a group of phantoms, a secret project, hidden in the shadows that no one had ever known about._

 _Overnight, for Tokashi at least, that had changed. At 0200, she had been dragged out of bed with communications demanding her presence at ONI headquarters and to report by 0600. Matters of "International Diplomacy and Security" were in jeopardy._

 _The poor lieutenant, she had no clue what she had stumbled into. Shaking her head and wiping her eyes she stood up, sliding her hands across her chest and stretching upward, her body flexed outward as she let out a yawn and a sigh. Slipping her feet into her running shoes, and strapping on her mobile wrist communicator she walked out to the door. Popping the lock behind her she glided down the stairs, recalling yet again that trudge she made down to the ONI rep's vehicle, ready for her to depart within 10 minutes of receiving the call to ONI Headquarters._

 _Her eyes glanced at the spot that the black vehicle had been parked. So important was this, that they had sent in a Black Falcon to whisk her away, and within moments they had been whisked into the air. Tossing it another evil glance, she started trotting down the road. Her job was less about the exercise as it was to clear her mind. Working, striving and clawing her way up the ranks, she had never expected this._

 _This discovery really was going to change the course of her career. Tokashi turned into the street, running away from the building and heading up towards a small Canal Street in town. She loved running this route, the smells at the market as she passed down through the shops at night were delectable and always brought a small, but delighting smile to her face. She sniffed as she jogged along, taking in the senses and smells as she passed a fish stall preparing fresh Sushi._

 _Her mind wandered back however, the Black Falcon dropping from the sky and landing directly on top of the ONI building. Having to be badged in half a dozen times before being allowed to even enter the main building through the annex access pathways._

 _As they had entered, the first few doors and hallways were unremarkable. Once they got past the annex however, the scenery was drastically different. Hallways and corridors of nothing but white. So sterile looking you could use the very floor to walk on, and then eat off of. They passed doors and corridors stretching deep into the heart of the facility. From these arteries, a group of armed, fully geared soldiers had met and joined them, escorting her deeper into the building by... At this point she had not even caught the man's name she was being led by._

 _He had not worn a military standard issue rank insignia, otherwise being replaced with a special patch denoting a division within ONI itself. She silently programmed every turn, ever motion into her mind as they walked. Slowly and steady down that corridor they traversed, each step taking them into the very sanitary, very remote building like nothing else before them. Each hallway exactly like the last except… not._

 _If you had looked at them, you would not have looked twice, each hallway appearing to be exactly as the one before but with subtle differences. A color on a door marking some level of clearance, a chair misplaced in one hallway that wasn't on the next. But the level of just… whitewall they were passing through was un ordinary all in itself._

 _Quietly they turned into one of these ominous corridors, slowly walking down and entering one of the nondescript white doors._

" _Please, take a seat while you wait." He finally said, motioning for one of the several chairs lining the wall in the waiting room of, some sort of office. He disappeared behind some opening in the wall that closed as quickly as it opened up. Seamless white walls were all that were left behind and she was alone in the room._

 _She looked to the counter, like an intake counter of some sort, a delivery port for packages, but there were no attendance. No secretary or administrative assistant as she opened a pocket. Placing her hand inside it she pulled out her government ID, in case she needed it.._

 _Minutes seemed to pass, the lifeless, quiet white room almost echoing with deafening silence. She turned frequently, looking left and right for any sign that someone else was still there, or that she was even being watched. Tokashi stood up, stretching out as she scanned the room. Why did they need her here? Her team had been processing artifacts but there was no warning in this meeting they had her coming to, if it was even that._

" _Had she caused someone harm? Did one of her discoveries become dangerous?" She was oblivious as she looked into the window. Coming closer and peaking through she looked back and forth. Other than an ONI logo on a single computer screen there was very little in the way of anything behind the counter._

 _Right at that time, the door flush with the wall opened, and another man, this person more well presented, well cut and trimmed, and highly decorated. She checked his sleeve and this man had ranks, Admiral._

 _Instantly and instinctively she stood in a salute, which he dismissed looking at other quickly._

" _Go ahead and follow me, formalities are not necessary from this point, Lieutenant." He impressed, waving her forward and placing his ID badge against the wall to hold the door open for her._

 _Quickly she bounded forward, taking the open door with a little relief and glad to be free of that holding cell of a room. Wrapping her arms behind her back as he ushered her through the door and it sealed behind her, a much different room layout in front of her._

 _Nearer to the heart an center of the ONI building, they were in a room that was much darker in color. No more whitewashed walls and windowless corridors, they were firmly inside a military operation now. Men in uniforms, of varying class and rank shuffled about. Many more in combat uniforms manned desks and terminals, dotting the rows of computers were the occasional officer._

" _This is the heart of the Navy's Information and data gathering center. The Heart of ONI itself. Anything you need to know, or would ever want to know about ONI, is in this room. It is never to leave this room after this point, understood?" The Admiral explained, looking at her with a look of abject abandon._

" _Yes sir." Tokashi was able to meekly squeak out. Being threatened with her own life, was certainly not the best way to start out a career and meet an Admiral. It worried her immensely. She followed him as they walked forward, heading for a conference room on the side of the room. Looking up as they walk, it looks as though the ceiling were 20 meters tall. Quietly observing as they walked and traveled across the large open room she couldn't help but admire the construction._

 _Entering the conference room, she was again asked to sit by the first man, silently waving his hand in a specific seat for her to take and take. She simply nodded, walking over and sitting._

 _On the table, there was a folder. On front, it was emblazoned with the ONI logo and it had PROJECT: SPARTAN tattooed on the top and the nametag. There was that name again, Spartan. Her body clenched tight and she looked back up as the Admiral sat down and other officers began entering the room, including her commanding officer, Captain Tavernish. Several others kept filling in and the door was shut and then window's darkened._

" _Now, if we can begin." One of the other officers, also an Admiral spoke up. She looked around the room, and in the sunlight there was so much brass in the room it would blind you._

" _Yes, and in Lord Hood's absence I will lead us in for the briefing." The Admiral who led her In stood up. "I am Lt. Admiral Cooke, with me are Rear Admirals Bryce of the 4_ _th_ _Naval Fleet and Greyerson of Sol Defense Platform Command, Captains Davar, Jones, Carlson, and your own Tavernish. Also joining us are Commander Pilsh, Adjutant to Lord Hood and Commander Fly, attache to Dr Catherine Halsey." Introducing everyone around the table she felt somewhat uneasy but starting to calm down. With all these person's here, the certainly was no interrogation._

" _Now, What we are going to read you in on is top level classified, and is not to be repeated outside of this room except on a need to know basis." He started, motioning for her to open the folder in front of her. "As you are probably aware, from rumors and other here say there are soldiers among our ranks, and for those persons there is a name. Spartans. These soldiers, are a special group of soldiers, raised and trained to be super soldiers in the UNSC. Stronger, faster and more intelligent than your average soldier, and outfitted with the highest tech known to man. Your Spartans, are men and women chosen from an early age and groomed for a life of duty and service to the good of mankind." The Admiral paused, letting the young lieutenant absorb the information she was beginning to receive. Flipping through the pages of the folder as he talked, pages and pages of information that was heavily redacted and censored showed glimpses of the Spartans, their registrations, their training, their statuses. Each one, listed MIA or Active, none were KIA._

" _Currently, the Spartan-II Program is a restricted access, need to know Government run Super-Soldier program. That said, not many people have clearance to be read-in on this information Commander." He concluded, and Captain Tavernish Standing beside him._

 _Lieutenant Tokashi was simply stunned. The information was full of information and her head was just… expanding at a rate that was not something she was prepared for. She looked up as he called out for a Captain, but he didn't say who. d Tavernish stood beside him, they were both looking at her._

 _Her confusion took another turn, scanning the room again but only they stood, both looking at her._

" _Admiral?" she inquired, holding her hand on the file._

" _Stand-to Lieutenant, the Navy isn't waiting too much longer." He barked and she snapped up, hitting attention on a dime. Captain Tavernish walked around with a box in her hand, stopping 2 paces from her._

 _Tokashi turned to her right, still slightly confused at what was going on as her Captain undid the box, revealing 2 shiny new rank bars, First Lieutenant's Bars. She stared for a moment at the Silver bar perched on 3 Horizontal Gold Bars as they glinted under the light._

" _For excellence in the field and the duties required for you to perform under the Navy's command and requirements under the UNSC Code of Military Conduct and Field provisions, I hereby instate upon you the rank of Full First Lieutenant and all the duties and responsibilities required of the posting. Your official rank is updated here-to and your position authorized from the UNSC high command, along with security clearances approved for the tasks you are assigned with. Are there any objections heard from the room?" Admiral Cooke Concluded. As he spoke, Captain Tavernish stripped the Lieutenant's insignia from her uniform, pinning on the First Lieutenant's insignia. A second box, included 2 additional pins. 1 with an updated name tag and plate for her other uniforms and a second insignia, of the Spartan team's insignia on it._

 _First Lieutenant Tokashi was beaming, yet still horribly confused as to what prompted this. Saluting and receiving her ranks with dignity, she turned back and saluted the Admirals in attendance._

" _Please, take your seat again, we must be brief about this." Admiral Cooke invited, his tone a bit softer now and a sly proud smile across his face as they all seated themselves and Captain Tavernish returning to her own chair next to Admiral Cooke._

" _Your promotion was one born of circumstance and of luck. What you found, and the information recovered about the slight few pieces you received showed unreserved and unprecedented intellect. What you recovered has been verified and the Armory records of your inquiry have been wiped. The Gunnery SGT that processed your request has been Reassigned and the designation of the ship has been changed from the records in the order of International Security." He started, as a sergeant entered the room and placed another folder on the table for everyone at the meeting._

 _The new First Lieutenant's heart sank, knowing that her inquiry had caused a lot of headache, but then she asked herself had it really caused that much of a problem. At face value, it seemed like a huge upheaval, but she looked at what had been done again and it seemed almost… Calculated. Like this had been planned for or even this was a long held policy._

" _What you found was a piece of a standard issue Shotgun, but the crystal you have in your possession, that's a different classification altogether. What that appears to be, is a R &D version of a next generation storage drive, based entirely on design for an AI operating Riemann Matrix, but next generation in every sense of the word. Most likely, what you have found, is a heavily fragmented and corrupted but ost interestingly, was part of an AI Data Matrix." He continued, bringing up the schematic from the R&D department inside ONI._

" _This had been given to us a few hours after your report came in through Captain Tavernish," Commander Fly stood and began speaking, his voice crackling slightly and his inexperience wained in the room. She surmised he was rather new to his position, and was uncomfortable near the Admirals, as she was as well. "The chip, appears to match the design of an experimental model that is currently in the final developmental stages, and is poised to be a replacement model for higher model AI series 4 and 5 designs. AI's, like the one developed and used by your department, Delphine, are "Dumb" AI's cloned off of a series 3 model and brain scan generated. With an intact Riemann Matrix they can essentially perform indefinitely. "Smart" AI models, like the Cortana Model, based on Dr. Halsey herself, have a living lifespan of roughly 7 years." He continued, pushing up information and other graphics that demonstrated expels of his works that he was describing._

" _So, what does that have to do with the crystal that we have onhand?" Tokashi asked in reply, holding it up in her hands as she pulled it from her pocket, and almost to his surprise. He stared at it silently and then blinking a few times he drew the image backup._

" _Yes, that model like I said a moment ago is apparently an experimental model, basically, a modified crystal with a much higher capability and able to record data at a much improved rate and also gives the AI's their own ability to modify and delete their own programming and memories, much like our memories deteriorate overtime, except in their "minds" the neuron's will never break down. The Onset of Rampancy can be pushed back to indefinite periods of time, much like Forerunner models and technology, or at least how it's been portrayed in technology dumps and documents we've recovered from fighting covenant forces over the past 40 years. Mentions of these "Forerunner AI's or Oracles" as the Covenant revere them, seem to suggest AI intelligence that lasts thousands of years without going rampant. Though of course, these are only theoretical, a living AI from those era has never been found or studied. We've received information regarding the possible location of one of these AI's, that identify itself as "Guilty Spark" but the UNSC does not have forces available to investigate and the transmission appears to be emanating from within the Covenant Space and is unfortunately unable to be confirmed at this time."_

" _So, AI's that are truly able to last longer than 7 years, is that even wise?" one of the other Commander's Chimed in, Tokashi was so enthralled she didn't see who but then again it didn't matter. The question was a terrifying one, and it could shake the UNSC to the core_

"FIRST LIEUTENANT!" squelched a voice over her communicator. Snapping from her daydream immediately she looked down and saw it beeping wildly.

"Yes, First Lieutenant Tokashi here" she meekly replied, shaking her head quickly and jumping to her feet. She looked around and realized she had been running for so long and just recalling information that she had run far past where she intended.

"We need you back at the digsite, Delphine believes she may have discovered something on the data crystal!" Baker was chattering in the background quickly as this new Staff SGT talked to her through the comm. Something about the Riemann Matrix of the AI. She couldn't make out his drivel so she closed the channel.

Turning to run back, she turned on her music, wanting to be lost in the sounds for just a few more minutes. Her toned legs and muscles slowly pushing her forward and pulling her closer to her abject home and abode. That hotel room had really turned into a home for her. Stacked ceiling high with false leads and other artifacts they had recovered. She remembers archiving each one, researching various markings and other language markers in the texts.

Fragments of pottery, bottles, jars and other remnants. Though 2 stood out, 2 pieces or fragments that had been left behind for use that had not been explained. One was a fragment of a sword, carved with faded blue lettering and embossed with what appeared to be Demons, and another Green metal plate, from what could only be matched to a style of helmet worn by Japanese Samurai with the same Demons label on it.

Within 20 minutes she arrived back at her hotel. Quickly tossing on her combat uniform she had reserved she grabbed her notes and walked out quickly. The ONI representative, a bit overzealous was waiting for her but as he began speaking her mind toned him out just as quickly.

Today, she was not going to be lectured by a babysitter.

Quickly arriving within minutes to the dig site, she walked to their clean area. Since the last find, and their funding increased they were able to secure a 2nd large drop base, and had upgraded from the field tent they had secured for the established relics of Military equipment's past. With a much more substantial lab to work with, it had been much easier to analyze samples but as they found things, even storage was at a premium now. "Bringing work home" was expected of her at that point, and it didn't hurt, even though most of what they found was useless nonsense, she loved learning the culture of past civilizations.

Washing her hands off and stepping into the clean lab they were working in, Corporal Baker put his glasses down and got off of his stool.

"Welcome First Lieutenant." He greeted her, the formality not lost on the young Baker who had come to begin reversing Tokashi. Walking her in they went to the computer terminal room, where Delphine was given much more processing power than she was allowed in the old terminals, thus allowing her to work much more freely, her avatar popped up.

"Greetings, First Lieutenant Tokashi." She stated.

"Good Morning Delphine. Baker says that you found something in regards to the old crystal datachip?" She started off, looking to the main screen and logging into the computer systems.

"Yes, while scanning some of the damaged documents, I may have found out how they were damaged beyond use." She continued, pulling out a few segments of files and running them across the screen.

Tokashi looked on as Baker returned to the main laboratory. She read the few scraps of text that appeared on the screen but it appeared to be nothing but gibberish.

"What exactly did you find?" She asked, pulling the partial recoveries to her screens and rereading them.

"That this AI is still active." Delphine replied, highlighting several segments of text, that appeared to repeat itself. . . . Each time, the text appeared in a different location but always in the same pattern. "I believe the text I'm seeing is a name, or a designation." She continued, bringing up the documents in their still heavily encrypted forms.

At the top, a few highlights appeared in the headers of the documents but overall there was no reliable data that Tokashi could see coming from this. Standing from the desk she turned over to Delphine's avatar and slowly walked close, pacing and placing her hands in her lab coat pockets as she continued to analyze the information that was being provided.

"Is it possible that this is something other than a name? or just a mention of the name? What evidence is there that this is the A.I. becoming active? I mean, this chip is nearly 1,000 years old and is still in good shape aside from a few cracks in the crystal." She started, flipping it over several times in her hands, examining the crystal and its cracks. Each one stemming from near the center of the crystal like it had been hit or smashed heavily.

"Looking at the documents and comparing them to ONI contemporary documents, letterheads, and other documents currently in service and in the guidelines of the MCJ documents of the UNSC, I have been able to partially decipher and decrypt several dates of the letterheads. Each time, the date is sequentially higher, spanning from 1566 on the document that was initially recovered, to 2119. Each time, that 5 Character string also appears. However, the 5 Character string was not in the original documents it appears. The documents were edited, all around 2259 AD."

This new information sent her for an even bigger loop, relaxing deep into the chair and thinking over the new developments, Tokashi was fully at a loss now. Time traveling Spartans? And an AI that could still be active? This seemed too good to be true. Or too weird to have been outside of a Science Fiction novel.

"Ok, so assume that this 5 Character String is a name. Heavily corrupted on the filetype, what could it be? A Native they came across? The name of the Ship is too long for that… We know the Spartan's Name who will be going back, but I'm going to assume that you did run it against that and it was no match?" Tokashi inquired instinctively.

"That Is correct ma'am. The name I am finding is not a match to SPARTAN-139, nor does it's corollary match any known UNSC personnel, designations, designs, or other artifacts we have on record. The placement and usage of it only also indicates that the word is a Proper noun, and could also be something that is translated from another language. There are many possibilities but none are standing out as higher probability uses than any other possible deviation. The probability currently of the 5 character string behind a Proper noun or Name in origin only stands at 42.19%. With 55 possible combinations for a 5 Character string it is a difficult task sorting out which ones it can be. Currently, probability stands at, based on comparisons to other parts of documents and slight translations that have been slowly progressed, the first character has a highest percentage probability at 17.11% of starting with the Letter "L". Delphine reported.

This only further confused Tokashi, who looked at the documents and saw nothing truly but gibberish. She strained her eyes but with Delphine continuing to chatter in the background she was stumped.

"What are the next 4 letters possible for the beginning Character Delphine?" She asked, fishing for a break.

"Z, M, D and A in that order. The first 5 letters comprise the top 45% of all possible searches or Character strings that result in a viable 5 letter name common in Galactic." She reported.

Tokashi was levelled, standing up she walked from the computer command desk and toward a breakroom. Another dead end it appears, she thought. Walking quickly, wanting to get away and just relax her eyes for a moment on the utter disappointment this had turned out to be, she closed the door to the breakroom and poured some tea. As A soldier, Coffee is an abundant resource, but it can be relied on too heavily. She had always preferred tea to Coffee, going out of her way to secure a large shipment of a particular brand made in the fields on Reach.

Smelling the hints of nutty flavors in the tea she breathed deep, setting herself in a chair and taking off her jacket. She sighed into the tea, steam blowing out around the cup and flowing over. Watching and dancing it around in her fingers she was confused and didn't know how to fix it. She knew what had to be true, but at the exact same time all the evidence they had was very odd. Her head hurt and she looked down at the jacket. Finger's pressed across the silver emblem on top she wondered what had become so important?

Leafing through a notepad, she started going back over work they had found earlier and came across that word again. Demon.

Walking back to the computer analysis room and sitting down, she brought the terminal up again and did a general search "Demon". Plenty of results populated from all different cultures and all different times. Images upon images showing demons in history from all different locations and countries.

"Delphine, is there any chance that the name we recovered is Demon?" She asked, pulling up some of the documents on the computer. She compared the 5 characters to Demon and looked at the screen for Delphine to analyze the request.

"Negative, probability for Demon being the Name is 1.04% with numerous factors against." She replied, somewhat coldly.

"Thank you for that cold shower Delphine." Tokashi blipped, falling back into her chair.

Having her hopes dashed time and time again there must be something they were missing. Pulling a file from her briefcase, the worn SPARTAN tag on it from being opened so much falling loose she flipped it open and fingered through the files. She stopped at John-117, the Demon of the UNSC, and slayer of thousands of Covenant. That name had been used with him for years, but according to his file and service records he had no contact with the problems that were to fall. She kept flipping through the pages, each service record detailed as the last. The un-redacted files had been cleared for her to view and had been sent to her after her promotion was made official through the UNSC high command.

Pulling through the files, several Spartans always stood clear of the fight. Obviously not "demons" in their right. Others, listed MIA but list the details of their deaths in their files. Several Spartans listed MIA with the Spirit of Fire Tragedy following Harvest.

One Spartan Stood out, but his file was still Redacted. The Entire File. His Spartan number was even Redacted. She pulled other files, Spartan IIIs even but this one singular Spartan was unlike any others in the folders. Maybe it was just a template page? She wondered as she looked at the head title SPARTAN-JJJ. John-117, William-104, Jason-139, White-B229… But this other Spartan, even the identity was Redacted.

"Delphine, what can you tell me of Spartan-JJJ?" She asked, just humoring herself at that point.

"There is no record of a SPARTAN-"Juliet, Juliet, Juliet" " Delphine replied, showing a bright red X on the screen with "No Information." In bright blue letters beneath it.

It just didn't make sense. The letters, the redacted names, none of it. It was all some elaborate hoax to waste my time and give me some fake promotion as a joke right? She thought this to herself as she stood up, looking at the large red X on the screen still.

Pressing her palms down to the keyboard she resolved to forget it. Maybe it was a dead end lead or maybe they were completely wrong. Either way she was not getting anywhere just fussing over it and they had nothing else in the warehouses.

"Delphine, bring up Digsite 210098. Show be the southeast quadrant that was surveyed yesterday." Poking at the screen she looked over the new surveys. Nothing of high quality interest. A manifest of samples popped up, small concentrations of radioactive materials in non harmful concentrations, large amounts of silicates and fragments of 31 separate elements. Nothing indicative of issues. A few more pottery fragments, local text. Looking over the dating they had been dated in the 1670s.

Tokashi began to flip to the next screen when something caught her eye. Scrolling back to a large stone slab, there was writing on it, but had another character. Reading over it, she enlarged it and enhanced the pattern on the screen.

"It looks similar to the Kanji for… Home." She said, bringing a digital tablet up on the table behind her. IN the command center, her personal pride and joy was the aforementioned table. It was a 3D render of anything you put on it. She was able to secure one for her lab and loved using it to look at artifacts without damaging them.

Pulling it across she brought up a sizeable replication of the kanji for home and set it in the inlay, and it fit nearly perfectly. Adjusting for a personal writing style and errors in carving along with erosion the Kanji fit perfectly.

"Home of the Demon?"

"Correction; Home of the Blue Demon." Corporal Baker corrected, stepping down the stairs and coming towards the table.

This caught here interest intensely. Changing the position of the wording and twisting the tablet she examined it but saw nothing about it.

"It only says 'Home of the Demon'." Questioningly she turned to him for an explanation.

"Look at the lettering, its not in the wording, it's in the coloration of the words themselves." He pulled out the tablet from a covered slab. "We were already on our way back with it but I thought you'd like to see it when we got back. The words themselves, you can see flakes of Blue paint in the grooves. But only in the word Demon do you see the Blue paint. All other's are empty and are simply carved out into the rocks. We found a partial of a second one that had been heavily eroded, but 1 symbol remained partially intact with the blue paint inside it." Baker placed the tablet down and magnified it on the screen.

She looked at it half skeptically at first, fingers running over the moss covered rock illuminated by the lights above. "Where was it found?"

Corporal Baker pulled the map of the Mountain up, and highlighted a region at the 1,200 meter area of the mountain. "We found it in an outcropping of rocks, it appears it may have fallen from up above, around 200 ft up a cliff down to its current resting place."

"Was there anything else found in the debris or area?" Tokashi asked, pulling up the list of remains found.

"There were a few smaller pieces that matched other time periods found, but we did find 1 other thing that matched around the same timeframe of the metal found." He picked out of his pocket a small piece of glass and held it up. Tinted and painted slightly blue and cracked multiple times. He handed it over to Tokashi, the glint unmistakable.

"This is glass from the front visor of a UNSC vehicle." She said in a hushed awe. Placing it on the table she couldn't help but hold back another gasp as she thought about how this was going to play out.

No longer was this the possibility of a Covenant landing. Even with the name Spartan the UNSC had still considered the possibility that this was a landing site for a Covenant force over 1,000 years ago, but no one knew for sure, or at least no one they knew of knew for sure. Until now, they had acted under assumptions and guesses based on what they had found, now, they had hard evidence.

"We are dating the glass now, and trying to process the batch it was made from. Maybe then it can shed some light on the vehicle that it was placed in and we can warn the of…" Corporal Baker started to say but Tokashi stood up immediately and Delphine's screens went all Red.

"WARNING – CONFIDENTIALITY BREACH!" Delphine's screens started howling out and sirens went off across the base. Tokashi walked to the shrinking red panel and typed in her access codes to silence the alarms as they were screaming. Turning around and dismissing the other MPs who had run to the room in response to the alarm she sighed and grasped her temples with her fingers, nursing the slight headache that the loud noises had created.

Cocking her head back to the now mystified Baker, "Corporal Baker, you are to contact no one regarding what you have found, and anything you find will be reported directly to myself. No other Officers are to know of this. I am trusting you with this information and you as a keeper of that information, is that clear?" She ruptured out, sighing again as she straightened her neck and tried to forget that horrid sound they had just been hit with.

Corporal Baker couldn't respond, he simply nodded. Not exactly sure at what had just happened, he understood his orders to the letter and was intent on following them now. Placing the glass shard down on the desk and folding it inside of a firm envelope he wrote "SPECIMEN" on top of the folder and left it for her.

"I will have the results anonymized once they are confirmed so that they don't show up on any official records and I will have the results sent directly to your desk as soon as we have them in." He responded. His tone was a bit deeper now and his responses were much more direct. Once the Red Alert had been sounded his professionalism kicked into high gear and was in full show.

"Thank you Corporal, I trust you will keep performing your duties to the letter and follow through with this knowledge on all future projects. Everyone else in this building does not know why we are here, and you know I am not allowed to disclose it either but you are the only person in this base other than myself and Delphine who is aware of just what we are exactly looking for and we must keep it that way." She dia-tribed to him. Her words fell like a poison coated dagger and betrayal of this order would not be tolerated.

He thought back to the Sergeant who had been reassigned simply because he knew what shotguns they had requested information on and what cargo they had been assigned to. And that wasn't even a punishment apparently, it was required so whatever the First Lieutenant was protecting, it was too vital for him to want to mess up. Or for him to want to not be a part of.

Quietly Corporal Baker dismissed himself, leaving her alone with Delphine in the command center as she went back to analyzing the information they had gathered about everything else in that digsite. Nothing else of any true and distinctive information came about and it was time to stop waiting around for something to drop into her lap. It was time to go find it herself.

"Delphine, im going to be in the field tomorrow at the digsite. Please, continue your work on translating any part of those documents you are able to do so with, and I will check in with you at the end of the week." She commanded.

"Yes Ma'am, and I will send you any updates I find on the subject matter at hand." The AI smoothly replied. Her console going dark and all of Delphine's avatar disappearing in a glitter of blue.

Lieutenant Tokashi waved her hand over where the Avatar had just been. She was always amazed at how the Avatar's could almost seem human, but in reality were nothing more than a collection of electricity. Very refined electricity, but electricity in and of itself. Though, isn't that what most of us are?

She pondered this, heading out the door and locking the command center behind her. Looking down on the table from the other side of the door as the lights slowly turned out she sighed, that piece of glass truly being a breaking point for this being anything else.

"Time travel…. What a dangerous thing…" She signed, turning to leave.

Hanging her lab coat up on the racks and taking her military vest, she walked towards the front of the building, the light from outside peering in each skylight as she walked by, still processing everything she had seen.

Spartans…. In the past? She thought silently as she cleared the entryway. Spartans had only just recently become public knowledge, and even that was just an acknowledgement that they even existed. They were enigmas. Earth's finest defenders in the galaxy. But they knew less of the Spartans than they did of how Bread was made.

And now, she had just been read in on some of the heaviest information in the entire galaxy, which made her sick to her stomach. The folder she had kept with her all this time, all the folded tabs and damaged bindings were falling apart at some places where she had to go back and tape them back down to prevent them from being damaged.

Information so sensitive, there was no reproducing it over electronic communications. Pen and paper information only had been used to pass information about the Spartans to Team Members who were involved and in the know with the Spartan Program.

Taking that folder she placed it in a document holder on the mongoose ATV she walked up to, kicked the starter and drove off. Leaving the compound behind she left so she could clear her head again. Driving down south she headed for a small town of resident locals. She went there whenever she had felt stressed in the past, as some of the local vendors truly made some amazing food. Her preference, was Ichiraku's Ramen stand in the small town. Driving off, the sun still high over the western part of the sky as she drove off, listening to the wind rush over her body and flap behind her. The Smell of the North Japanese Highlands, and of the sea wafted through her nose as she made her way to a clearing to park her Mongoose.

Looking down over the town, it looked just as it did in pictures from the early 22nd century, quaint and well put together but still a homely little village with little dependence on modern technology, as they had been for the past 800 years. She sat back on the seat, tossing her head back and pulling off the helmet donned for riding, letting her hair flow free again. Pulling the bands from the back of her head, the golden hinted brown hair fell free, just over .7 meters long. She let her hair hang free, glinting in the evening Japanese sunlight as she caught her breath.

Slowly dismounting the Mongoose, she pulled the file out of the holder and walked down to the town. A Small rocky footpath highlighted with old solar powered lights had begun to turn on, lighting a few of the darker spots between the trees as she proceeded down the path. Letting her head Bob from side to side, her hair glowing in the evening sun as she walked down off the next step and stopped.

Tokashi turned her gaze northbound, looking up over the trees, seeing a flutter in the distance as a bird took off and flew off into the haze dipping below the Treeline again. She wondered silently as she stroked her finger through her hair trying to enjoy the moment.

From the shop several meters away the shopkeep was already waving to her. An elderly Japanese man, she had befriended him over a year ago when she first visited his stall. She had eaten with him as he got off work, and ever since they had been drinking friends as well. He stood a meer 140cm tall, but his skills in the kitchen were unsurpassed. Anything was better than ship food but his cooking was something out of this world!

Her body instinctively jerked her towards the stall, mind already set on food and at least for the moment, she had forgotten about her work and the duties that befell her. It's the main reason why she liked coming here, the calming atmosphere, the serene and tranquil village, it was all just so peaceful. Setting her helmet down on the stool beside her she sat herself up on the center stool. The folder of documents placed on the table before her and her hand covering the label on the outside for the moment.

"Good evening there young Miss, I take it your days have troubled you, or you would not have come so far to eat!" He greeted her. Jolly and inviting, he always poked fun at her when she came. Typically she only came once a week, but this was a rare treat for him and he was not going to waste the opportunity to tease her for it.

"Good evening Mr. Tarafuda, and it has not in the least. You know the UNSC treats me well." she replied heartily, mind focused on a pot of boiled ramen noodles and sauces of every assortment behind him. She breathed in deep and the old man only smiled as she relaxed, placing her folder down and relaxing at his table.

"And what would you like today, a bowl of Udon with miso? Maybe some Soba noodles and pork?" He asked politely, and slightly teasingly. Smiling he lifted his finger to her. She began to try and speak and he simply shushed her, placing his finger to his mouth. His aged hands slender they barely hood him as he grinned from ear to ear.

"Do not worry young lady, I know why you are here." Slowly stirring the pot behind him he pulled a giant glob of noodles, dripping with hot water from the pot and place them in a large cast iron bowl. That bowl was ancient, looking at it must have been 200 or 300 years old.

"When did you say your family started this shop?" Asking curiously as he toiled in front of her, placing condiments and other seasonings in the bowl. His almost dance like movements behind the counter were slightly distracting as she fingered a page or two in the folder under her hands.

Twisting around and only smiling he delivered a hot bowl of ramen and soup to her. Not answering, he chuckled as she nodded in her receipt of the bowl. "When is it that anyone begins anything, but the time in which they want to do it." He cryptically answered.

Bewildered by the old man's constant guile and ever so convincing dodges of the question she left it alone again. Sipping at the soup she looked over documents in the SPARTAN folder, reading profile documents and other read-in only products. Her eyes only glazed over, moreso than the peels of the fruit in the bowl. She glanced at the pictures and flipped down to the back of the stack. Sipping a bit of the soup she thought back towards the briefing.

Being at the archaeological sites all the time, she was pent up almost keeping track of all the research. The Folder in front of her felt distant, and the pages made little sense. She simply closed it back, turning back to the soup. Drawing in the top of the bowl she designed small loops and watched it swirl, the globs of butter collecting at the top of the liquid as she stirred the noodles back and forth.

"You know, noodles taste better when they go in your mouth." The Old man came back into the storefront, carrying another large pot of water. "Always more, always making more. You people love noodles and ramen, but never..." Struggling with the large pot he forced it up and onto the small propane fire stove. "Ugh, you never lift water like me." He smiled, pulling his apron out a little and tightening its bands around himself again.

"Why don't you hire some help?" She suggested, smiling slightly. Turning back to her soup she started to sip when he said something very curious.

"What, you mean like Blue Demon? Sure, like I need help, I'm an old man but I can hold this store together just fine!" He exclaimed, pointing to a framed photo of his business license granted by the Japanese Statehood.

With an almost dreamlike air around her head she popped her head up at the mention of the Blue Demon. Maybe it was just a local expression, or maybe it was just a part of a story he heard, but she had never told him about her work. How did he know, she had nothing to go on, but maybe, just maybe he knew something that could piece it together. Even if it was a longshot she had to ask. As she ponders this she looks back out to the ocean, large storm clouds, like her thoughts dancing in the horizon, almost as if it was clouding her vision.

Heading down from the main compound Corporal Baker stopped along a ridgeline overlooking one of the new dig locations. Pulling the mongoose into a stop he straightened out, arching his back from the long drive. 15 minutes through the dense forest was a long way to head out on a mongoose. "Ugh, all the bumps."

Laying back over the passenger seat and cargo saddlebags his back was arched painfully as he stretched out, waiting for the cracks to stop.

"Delphine, were almost at the dig site you highlighted. Are you sure it couldn't be any further out of the way, this drive is killer for my thighs, and my soul" He stated over the comm in his helmet, slowly sitting back up and crossing his hands over the handlebars.

"I'm not sure what you mean Corporal, it's a 1,900 meter drive from the compound, I hardly believe that could be something as high endurance as you proclaim it to be." Coldly the AI piped in and updated his HUD. "Continue on down the ridge in front of you and you should be at the location I have isolated as a potential hotspot for archaeological activity."

He clicked the viewfinder on his helmet, looking down into the ravine and along the path down. "How can you be so sure that there is anything down there?" He asked, pulling out his datapad and looking over the terrain maps. "We surveyed this site last year, and this ravine was underwater for the past 600 years. How could it be of any use?" Looking down at some of the markers they had left behind last year the closest of which was at the edge of a Treeline down the path, he turned the mongoose wheels towards the path down to the gorge.

"My analysis shows a clearing that was not explored. Several of the items that you have catalogued point to a common origin as if they were washed downhill. You yourself noted that the clay fragments and partial musket stock appear to have been damaged by significant water damage over time. Not to mention that all of those items were found several kilometers from where you are heading and in different dig sites leads us to conclude that there was a common origin." She diatribed. Speaking over the comm her avatar was deactivated at the base but her attitude still showed, even now. "You must have missed something, I would not have had I been assigned here when you started meandering around in the dark in the forest!" She exclaimed. Her sharp attitude and wit showing out slightly as she quieted down.

Baker quietly thought to himself that he was going to need to check her matrix when he got back. A Dumb AI with that much personality was quite an odd thing but, either way he still needed to head down there. "Sure, just remember that I found that last clay pot fragment, you only analyzed it!" Trying to make a point to the AI.

She simply hummed a soft tune, similar to Na-na-na-na-na-na, a childish children's taunt in his earpiece.

Shrugging it off, he hopped the mongoose down the path, slowly maneuvering around large outcropped boulders and making his way down slowly to the base of the ravine. Gazing up above him, the trees twisting from the rocks above and making a canopy over where he was made him a bit uneasy. The rocks and trees were unusually stable, nature coming together to hold itself together apparently.

"Delphine, what exactly are we looking for down here." He asked calmly, revving the mongoose again and taking it slowly into the clearing ahead of him. His HUD popped up with several markers in the background behind the trees in the front line, and Delphine pulled a red marker line from him marking a path through the trees.

"The target and all information is classified, please proceed."

He sighed at her response. Ever since the Lieutenant got promoted and whisked off to ONI in the middle of the night it's been one cover up over another. There was something they REALLY didn't want anyone to know going on, but they wouldn't even tell him. It makes him uneasy, watching all of this situation swirl around him like a trap, unable to do anything other than watch it catch wind like a storm but unable to see what the storm is. "it's just cause I'm a grunt, you don't like me do you Delphine. Can't you make an exception and tell me what we are looking for?" He pleaded over the comm, almost truly begging her to tell him what was going on. Lieutenant Tokashi certainly wouldn't tell him.

"ONI directive states that no personnel can be declassified with that information without prior approval with your direct onsite supervision officer." She simply stated this coldly, shutting the mic down with an audible click to emphasize her point.

It was odd, that click. The mic system didn't have a click, this was something Delphine had put into the mic program and played like an audio clip. She wasn't programmed for this level of behavior, at least, not normally. He really had to check her Matrix when he got back, something wasn't balanced right he thought, but kept driving deeper into the forest.

Passing a large outcropping of indigenous trees and rounding yet another bounder as he navigated towards the first marker she had put down he slowly parked the ride. Stepping off and yawning, he pulled his datapad out and looked down.

"Alright Delphine, im at the first of the checkpoints you have for me. I don't see anything of any note, at least not at surface depth." Closing his first checkpoint down in his HUD, he walked around for a few moments. Looking at the gorge, the sides of the gorge must have been close to 200 meters high on both sides, with trees nearly half that height dotted around him and in the vicinity. Pacing the area, he couldn't help but marvel at some of the natural beauty. A flight of birds swooped down overhead as he stared up, slowly gliding through the gulley towards the darkness ahead.

Lowering his helmet and recording what he saw everything looked strangely natural. There seemed to be no trace of anything remotely human in the ravine. Walking over to the walls and taking out a drill from the mongoose, he bored deep into the wall of one of the rock faces, pulling out a plug around 20cm deep from the wall. Examining it, he looked at the colors and the depth but noticed something highly strange.

"Delphine, what do we know of happening in the past 800 to 1000 years in this area of Japan?" he asked, taking another core sample from a few feet away. Around 11cm in, he marked images with notable color differences from the surrounding rocks, saving them to Delphine's open folder she dropped in his HUD for the images.

"It appears that these rings indicate a layer of almost crystallization, as if the clay was exposed to a very strong, very hot fire." She responded. "Unfortunately, records from that time period are from a long period of war and fighting, rural life was not widely reported on and did not retain appropriate records from the period regarding any possible natural disasters."

He nodded, taking hold of the drill again and going back to the mongoose, putting it back and taking out a portable Xray scanner. Walking back to the wall he slowly scanned the image around the ground below him. The Xray hummed and dinged, slowly building an image as he walked forward. As he reached the wall, he clicked the machine and waited for it to whirr and spin for a few moments. As it went dormant again, he checked the file it was created. Within moments he was reading an X-ray shot of the ground he had walked, extremely precise images of the stuff beneath the ground and trapped from life at a depth of around 2-3 feet.

Scrolling through the picture, Baker noticed several odd shaped metal fragments, pointed at several places and irregular, abstractly shaped. The shards looked more like broken glass than metal, but were solid on the scans unlike glass. Scratching his head at the contradiction he took to the Mongoose, reaching into the saddlebags and pulling out a small field trowel and sifter.

Placing the shifter down he knelt down next to the scanner's aperture and used the trowel to begin excavating. The soil was very loamy, brown and coarse. Easy to dig through with such a sharp trowel he easily moved over a foot of dirt, slowing down and carefully proceeding to where the shards had appeared.

*Tink* He quickly retracted the shovel, taking out a smaller pair of tongs and turning on his headlight on his helmet. Looking up again he realized it was starting to get cloudy, and where he was under the trees that meant it looked almost like nightfall. The Gloomy, wet air flowed past him with an eerie breeze that made him shiver a moment.

Shrugging it off he turned his head back to the pit, pulling out a small fragment of what was clearly metal. Looking it over and pouring a slight bit of water over it, it was clearly not your common sword steel or even building steel, it was much more commonly modern than that, an alloy made common day that he saw everyday. It was fragments of a ship's hull. Pulling out several more pieces, they were all the same.

Packing them all in a sealable container he looked around one more time, and examined for anything else that may be protruding from the Cliffside. Nothing that He could see where the pieces could have fallen from. Marking the container with the date and time

Taking another look at the metals he had, he couldn't make a pattern of them, just fragments as if they had come in on reentry. Possibly a Satellite that had broken up on reentry and fallen down here into the crag. Excavating the last bit of dirt in a nice hole and going deeper he found another piece, but this one was different. Lifting it from the hole gently he slowly examined it more closely in the light, a brightly painted blue metal strip, glittering in the light of his lamps, and with faint worn black lines. He couldn't make anything out of it, it had been worn down so badly but it was very old.

Placing it in it's separate container, he packed up the gear he had, and before leaving proper, dropped a GPS locator, that started pulsing a faint green light to mark the location for them to come back with a proper team. Slowly he mounted up on the Mongoose and turned it around, heading back up the way that he had come, traversing the gully and up the side of the crevasse to apparent safety. Rain and water were pounding his mongoose by that point. The trees had provided good shelter but this was nuts.

"Delphine, where did this storm come from?!" He spoke into the communicator, bouncing the mongoose over a set of rocks which crumbled and broke away as he passed, falling down into the ravine below. Pulling the mongoose to the other side again and getting away he cleared the pass and got onto solid ground again.

Moments later a static laden message came through from Delphine, completely undecipherable garbled audio shot through to his communicator as he adjusted a dial on his headset. Thunder boomed loud over his head, dark clouds rolling like billowing smoke.

"Delphine are you there?" He repeated, pressing his finger into the communicator adjustment again, trying to adjust the frequency for a better signal. Still parked, he was about ½ a kilometer from the edge of the ravine. Afraid to move forward, Baker looked around trying to find a bit of shelter from the storm. He could see as water began to rush and flow, actively eating away parts of the road in front of him. Erosion was certainly common but this part of the passage was crucial to pass otherwise he would be trapped.

Still static. He turned off his communicator, and starting to get worried as the rain intensified harder he looked forward, slowly revving the engine of his Mongoose.

"I have to get back to the base, I can't fail." He told himself, starting back up towards the ridge.

Crumbling rocks and dirt started to give way as he plodded forward, his mongoose, spinning its tires at the motions of the dirt beneath it scarily going up the muddy slope.

Corporal Baker looked behind him as the wheels spun, and they started sliding backwards.

This was a bad idea.

Delphines avatar flickerd on her emitter. The Outside crashing with lightning heavily as the rain splattered the window outside.

"Lockdown of all base functions and seal all the doors!" Echoes went through the halls as she directed base protocol. Automated Storm prevention measures to keep contaminants away from lab areas and securing the labs from any extraneous damage was key at this moment as the water crashed down.

Lightning had already struck the main tower outside and comm links outbound from the station were gone. Short range communication over a few kilos only until they could repair it.

"Corporal Baker, this is Base, please respond if you are in range!" She repeated over the comms. Every 45 seconds she was repeating that message but for the past 13 minutes, no responses from Corporal Baker.

This wasn't necessarily the worst disaster in history, but a rather severe thunderstorm bearing down on a small, mostly open air research station can wildly ruin all their data and corrupt things that are exposed to water. And without military grade Bubble Shields or Station Shields to defend against Earth's more terrifying weather, it was a lot more deadly than people understood. With the immense industrialization on earth, there were many places that had started to experience these freak powerful thunderstorms, and Delphine was not about to allow one to ruin their data.

"Lieutenant Tokashi, please report to base, situations are growing worse and you need to return now!" She hailed over the comm. WithTokashi missing and Baker not responding to calls, the rest of the crew onsite was mainly focused on preventing damage from quickly building storm waters and sliding mud from the mountainside.

Nothing but static, so Delphine set that message to repeat as well, hoping to hear back from the Lieutenant sooner rather than later about the problem.

Trying to bypass the damaged radio circuitry and bring backup communications online was proving difficult without someone readily available to climb the tower and manually move over the coupler to the secondary systems. Trying to patch it over through the electronic channels was not working. Lighting probably blew out one of the resistor panels in the communications relay panel so they were stuck.


End file.
